WWE: Backlash 2018: A powerful kick in the fan’s soul

Last night the official Post-WrestleMania-PPV backlash rose at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. In the Main Event Roman Reigns met the newly recovered Samoa Joe.

Surprisingly, the WWE title match between AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura took place earlier and ended in controversy. Daniel Bryan also faced his latest rival Big Cass.

Winner: Ruby Riott per Riott Kick after Liv distracted Morgan Bayley. Things are not really going really well for Bayley and Sasha Banks, whose feud simply does not want to take off, or rather is not allowed to take off. Instead, they have been annoyed for months with absolution and now with its 2.0 version, the Riott Squad, without it being obvious where the whole thing would lead. Granting Ruby victory makes sense to give the stable, which has been boocked comparatively well in recent months, further momentum. But at the same time you have to ask yourself where WWE wants to go with their two faces, because if the two of them are not currently in the doghouse, as rumor has it around WrestleMania, then they urgently need their feud to go back in the right direction.

Winner and Intercontinental Champion: Seth Rollins per Blackout after missing a Super Blackout. No surprise here, Rollins was the only logical winner just because of the Raw/SmackDown constellation. If you had chosen at least one raw superstar as a challenger for your USC counterpart, there would still have been marginal tension, but you took this opportunity early on yourself. As expected, the match was strong – how could it be any different for them? and Rollins is an absolutely worthy successor to Miz as the flagship of the IC Division. Now that the rematch is out of the way, the architect can return to his rivalry with Finn Bálor, while Miz should gradually move towards Daniel Bryan over the next few months, as this feud is something every WWE fan is longing for.

Winner and RAW Women’s Champion: Nia Jax per Samoan Drop after catching Alexa at Twisted Bliss. For this match, even without the Raw/SmackDown constellation, the same applies as for the previous one: Anything but a title defence would have been a sensation! The bully feud with Alexa should now gradually end, whereby the problem will arise afterwards, not to have a worthy opponent (besides Ronda Rousey of course) for Jax. After her victory in the kickoff Riott still seems the most logical, who could also be booked against the champ in a more or less credible way thanks to her stables. At the same time, however, you urgently have to push Raw Women’s Division away from Nia and Ronda (and Alexa) if you don’t want to be completely without serious challenges in the near future.

Winner and still United States Champion: Jeff Hardy per Swanton Bomb. And the same thing again, it was an absolutely obvious result. Jeff was brought to SmackDown as one of the top faces and could even look towards WWE titles in the future. Accordingly logical and important for him was a victory over a big name like the 13-time World Champ Orton. The blue squad offers enough potential future opponents (Joe, Miz, Rusev,…), but the closest thing would be a heel turn by Randy, through which the feud, similar to Styles vs. Nakamura, would only gain momentum. In Backlash, however, they did without this, there was no sequel after Hardy’s victory.

Next Elias wanted to inspire the fans – of course after he had offended the home state of the boss Bruce Springsteen extensively – with his wonderful music. As expected, however, he was interrupted: First from New Day, then from Rusev Day and to the coronation of No Way José, who had a Conga Line including Breezango and Titus Worldwide in tow. Finally Bobby Roode joined the crowd and ruined Elias’ evening with a Glorious DDT.

Winner: Daniel Bryan per Yes Lock. For the first time some tension arose with this PPV, even if in the end the obvious winner was allowed to raise his arms again to cheer. The WWE could reasonably be expected to give Big Cass the shock moment with a dirty victory, which was rightly dispensed with. Now, of course, one can argue that the defeat came too soon for the returnee, with whom Vince & Co. still felt they had big plans. But a program against Bryan, in which Cass was presented like a strong bully, definitely moves him forward. The fact that Cass Bryan continued to attack brutally after the match also makes it clear that the feud will continue and a victory for the giants in between can certainly not be ruled out. They proved in any case that the whole thing works wonderfully to bring the two in their roles further over, because Daniel was celebrated as expected extensively and Cass was booed especially at the post-match Beatdown in the ground and considered with “Asshole”-Chants. All done right, WWE!

Winner and still SmackDown Women’s Champion: Carmella, who used Charlotte’s convoyed knee injury to her pin after a missed moonsault. In principle, the same applies here as in the two men’s midcard title matches: the new champ was further built up by beating its predecessor. Nevertheless, it is unbelievable that Carmella was allowed to pin the woman who ended Asuka’s winning streak at WrestleMania just a month ago. In the match Charlotte was dominantly represented, of course, while the Princess of Staten Island used every opportunity for taunting or fled from the ring before her opponent. Nevertheless, this victory is a real house number for Mella, whose push after the rumours of an unsuccessful cash-in was a successful shocker and gives her enormous momentum.

The feud against the Queen should be over and in doubt she will turn to Battle Royal winner Naomi next to eliminate another transition opponent. While Carmella mutates to the new Alexa Bliss – a role that she has to do even more justice to in the ring – Charlotte has to ask herself what to do now. The closest thing would be a feud with an Asuka returning as a heel, which could be drawn over months without problems.

Page 1: “Asshole” Cass & much obvious

Page 2: What can you say? What was that all about?